For lawyers only

Derogatory Names for Lawyers, Part One

As I rush to finish a brief that's due tomorrow, I've fallen a little behind in my Legal Underground production schedule. But dashing off a post about derogatory names for lawyers won't take any time at all. In fact, I can simply copy from A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage, where Bryan Garner has already assembled quite a long list. Here's a selection:

Ambulance Chaser. A lawyer who solicits business from accident victims at the scene of an accident or shortly thereafter; by extension, an unscrupulous plaintiffs' lawyer.

Blackstone Lawyer. A self-educated antebellum lawyer whose legal training consisted primarily in reading Blackstone's Commentaries. Thomas Jefferson complained that "a student finds there a smattering of everything, and his indolence easily persuades him that if he understands that book, he is a master of the whole body of law."

Country Lawyer. A rural lawyer. This term can carry positive connotations, but it sometimes suggests modest intellectual abilities.

Latrine Lawyer. A lawyer who gets business from the rumors spread in the latrine.

Philadelphia Lawyer. An ultracompetent lawyer who knows the ins and outs of legal technicalities; also, a shrewdly unscrupulous lawyer.

Again, please note: the indented portion of this post is a direct quote from Garner's book. If you want to complain, complain to him. If you want to suggest your own derogatory terms for lawyers, that's what the comments are for. But please, play fair, and try not to mention any real lawyers by name.

"Jack" was used as a generic name for a "regular guy" as early as the 14th century, a sense which survives today in our "jackknife," an unpretentious and utilitarian tool. "Jackleg" or "jack-leg" is a native American colloquialism that has meant "unskilled" or "incompetent" since about 1837, and was often applied to doctors and lawyers in the Old West.

My own theory is that it was coined for makeshift repaired legs of furniture that had rotted from contact with dirt or damp floors. Often a piece would be added to the leg to make the furniture level, a makeshift repair, rather than a new leg. This is just a guess; I'm not even a jackleg linguist.